cop

cop

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Coptic.

• Wiktionary's coverage of Coptic terms

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɒp/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɑp/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /kɔp/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒp

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English *coppen, *copen, from Old English copian (“to plunder; pillage; steal”); or possibly from Middle French caper (“to capture”), from Latin capiō (“to seize, grasp”); or possibly from Dutch kapen (“to seize, hijack”), from Old Frisian kāpia (“to buy”), whence Saterland Frisian koopje, North Frisian koope. Compare also Middle English copen (“to buy”), from Middle Dutch copen.

cop (third-person singular simple present cops, present participle copping, simple past and past participle copped)

1. (transitive, originally New York dialectal, informal) To obtain, to purchase (items including but not limited to drugs), to get hold of, to take.
   • 1984, Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City, →ISBN, page 4:

     You see yourself as the kind of guy who wakes up early on Sunday morning and steps out to cop the Times and croissants.

   • 1995, Norman L. Russell, Doug Grad, Suicide Charlie: A Vietnam War Story, page 191:

     He sold me a bulging paper sack full of Cambodian Red for two dolla' MPC. A strange experience, copping from a kid, but it was righteous weed.

   • 2005, Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home, Simon & Schuster, page 10:

     Heroin appeared on the streets of our town for the first time, and Innie watched helplessly as his sixteen-year-old brother began taking the train to Harlem to cop smack.

   • 2020, Internet Money, Gunna, Don Toliver (lyrics and music), “Lemonade”, in B4 The Storm ft. NAV:

     Off the juice, codeine got me trippin' copped the coupe, woke up, roof is missin'...

   • 2021, Polo G (lyrics and music), “RAPSTAR”, in Einer Bankz : Synco (music), Hall of Fame:

     Uh, copped a BMW, new deposit, I picked up another bag Like fuck it, I'ma count while I'm in it...

   • 2023, Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, Rye Lane, spoken by Nathan (Simon Manyonda):

     Oh, come on. Help a brother out. People see you coppin', might inspire them. Look, I know you ain't payin' bills right now. Man must have bare peas saved up.

2. (transitive) To (be forced to) take; to receive; to shoulder; to bear, especially blame or punishment for a particular instance of wrongdoing.

   When caught, he would often cop a vicious blow from his father.

   • 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 34:

     I take no shame to fight the lame / When they deserve to cop it.

   • 1992, “Straight Razor”, in Roxanne Shanté (lyrics), The Bitch Is Back:

     You bust in the house, another bitch’s mouth is suckin on your man's dick
     What do you do: think straight? Or do you run to the back,
     Open the trunk to the nickel-plate 38?
     “Wait wait, baby, please!”
     That's the shit he's coppin when he’s down on both his knees

   • 2009, Lee Headington, Relentless, page 5:

     I now understand that my dad didn't really have much of a father-son relationship and may have found my behaviour hard to deal with. Maybe that is why I copped a beating.

3. (transitive, trainspotting, slang) To see and record a railway locomotive for the first time.
4. (transitive) To steal.
   • 2017, Billie Eilish, Finneas O'Connell (lyrics and music), “Copycat”, in Don't Smile at Me, performed by Billie Eilish:

     Copycat tryna cop my manner / Watch your back when you can't watch mine / Copycat tryna cop my glamor / Why so sad, bunny? Can't have mine

5. (transitive) To adopt.

   No need to cop a 'tude with me, junior.

6. (intransitive, usually with “to”, slang) To admit, especially to a crime or wrongdoing.

   I already copped to the murder. What else do you want from me?

   Harold copped to being known as "Dirty Harry".

   • 2005, Elmore Leonard, Mr. Paradise, page 295:

     He shot a guy in a bar on Martin Luther King Day and copped to first-degree manslaughter

7. (transitive, slang, of a pimp) To recruit a prostitute into the stable.
   • 1967, Iceberg Slim, Pimp, published 2009, page 90:

     I said, 'Tell your tricks to call you here.'
     She laid the bearskin and freaked the joint off with her lights and other crap. Except for the fake stars it was a fair mock-up of her pad where I had copped her.

   • 2011, Shaheem Hargrove, Sharice Cuthrell, The Rise and Fall of a Ghetto Celebrity, page 55:

     The code was to call a pimp and tell him you have his hoe plus turn over her night trap but that was bull because the HOE was out of his stable months before I copped her.

Short for copper (“police officer”), itself from the verb cop (“to lay hold of”) above, in reference to arresting criminals.

cop (plural cops)

1. (informal) A police officer or prison guard.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:police officer

• Originally a slang term, but now in general use, including by journalists and police. Terms like police officer are generally considered more respectful.

From Middle English coppe, from Old English *coppe, as in ātorcoppe (“spider”, literally “venom head”), from Old English copp (“top, summit, head”), from Proto-West Germanic *kopp, from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“vault, round vessel, head”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve”). Cognate with Middle Dutch koppe, kobbe (“spider”). More at cobweb.

cop (plural cops)

2. (obsolete) A spider.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

• attercop

From Middle English cop, coppe, from Old English cop, copp, from Proto-West Germanic *kopp, from Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“vault, basin, round object”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew-. Cognate with Dutch kop, German Kopf.

cop (plural cops)

1. (crafts) The ball of thread wound on to the spindle in a spinning machine.
2. (obsolete) The top, summit, especially of a hill.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, , London: for M Lownes; I Browne; I Helme; I Busbie, →OCLC:

     Cop they use to call / The tops of many hills.

3. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (obsolete) The crown (of the head); also the head itself.

   The stature is bowed down in age, the cop is depressed.

4. A roughly dome-shaped piece of armor, especially one covering the shoulder, the elbow, or the knee.
   • 2004, Kevin Grace, Tom White, Cincinnati Cemeteries: The Queen City Underground, Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 142:

     […] the elbow cop or coudiere for the elbow; and the rerebrace or arriere-bras for the upper arm. The shoulder cop, pauldron or epauliere which covered the shoulder, and often a large part of the breast and back, was usually considered a part of the arm guard.

   • 2013, K. J. Parker, The Proof House, Orbit, →ISBN:

     In the middle was a pile of armour – breastplates, helmets, vambraces, gorgets, pauldrons, cops, cuisses, sabatons, gauntlets, all mangled and ruined, ...

   • 2013, George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times, Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 364:

     Tilting Cuisses 457. In the 15th century the knee cops were merged in the plate cuisses. In the East, except in Japan, knee cops as separate pieces of armor were seldom used east of Turkey.

5. A tube or quill upon which silk is wound.
7. (architecture, military) A merlon.

• Michael Quinion (2004) “Cop”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.

• check cop (probably etymologically unrelated to above terms)
• not much cop (probably etymologically unrelated to above terms)

• CPO, OCP, OPC, PCO, POC, PoC

From Proto-Great Andamanese *cup.

cop

1. basket

• Juliette Blevins, Linguistic clues to Andamanese pre-history: Understanding the North-South divide, pg. 20 (2009)

Inherited from Old Catalan colp, from Late Latin colpus (“stroke”), from earlier Latin colaphus.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia)

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

cop m (plural cops)

1. hit, blow, strike
2. time, occasion

   Synonyms: vegada, volta

• colp (dialectal)

Per GDLC, possibly from Ancient Greek κόλπος (kólpos, “bosom, lap; fabric fold; pocket”), with influence from copa (“cup”). First attested in 1324.^[1] In some senses (e.g. "snowflake"), influenced by Spanish copo (“flake”).

• cóp (pre-2016 spelling)

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia)

cop m (plural cops)

1. (archaic) large cup; bowl
2. (historical) former dry measure (compare English cup)
3. snowflake
4. heart of a cabbage
5. upper part of a tree trunk (where the branches grow from)
6. (fishing) catch bag (bag for holding caught fish, attached to a net)
7. (weaving) skein

• “cop” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “cop”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “cop” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “cop” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• (eye dialect) cup

From clipping of English copy.

cop

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to copy; to plagiarise
   • 2014 February 3, 王棘蘭, “創意回收”, in 獨立媒體‎:

     還有，像再造紙般，直接將「講呢d」、9gag圖等，別人的二次創作加工或「照cop」，再造成「三次創作」。 [Literary Cantonese, trad.]
     还有，像再造纸般，直接将「讲呢d」、9gag图等，别人的二次创作加工或「照cop」，再造成「三次创作」。 [Literary Cantonese, simp.]

     waan⁴ jau⁵, zoeng⁶ zoi³ zou⁶ zi² bun¹, zik⁶ zip³ zoeng¹ “gong² ni¹ di¹”, gau² gek¹ tou⁴ dang², bit⁶ jan⁴ dik¹ ji⁶ ci³ cong³ zok³ gaa¹ gung¹ waak⁶ “ziu³ kop¹”, zoi³ zou⁶ sing⁴ “saam¹ ci³ cong³ zok³”.

     Also, in a fashion similar to recycled paper, polished or directly copied others' derivative work such as “to speak of this” or images by 9gag, creating “twice derivative work”.

   • 2022 January 14, “COLLAR新歌驚現亞視《百萬富翁》廠景 網民好奇問：原來仲未拆”, in 新假期‎:

     網民直言：「副歌有一段仔直頭照cop akb首river」。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     网民直言：「副歌有一段仔直头照cop akb首river」。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     mong⁵ man⁴ zik⁶ jin⁴: “fu³ go¹ jau⁵ jat¹ dyun⁶ zai² zik⁶ tau⁴ ziu³ kop¹ ei¹ kei¹ bi¹ sau² river”.

     Netizens said outspokenly: “There's a small section in the chorus that simply directly copies River by AKB48”.

• copy

Borrowed from German Zopf.

• IPA^(key):

cop m inan

1. braid

• “cop”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “cop”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

• (cop): Borrowed from English cop.
• (friend): Clipping of copain.

• IPA^(key): /kɔp/

• Audio:

  (file)

cop m (plural cops)

1. (informal) a friend, a pal
2. (North America, informal) cop (police officer)

   Synonym: flic

   Tu travailles avec les cops de Gatineau ?

   Do you work with the Gatineau cops?

• cope, coppe

From Old English cop, from Proto-West Germanic *kopp.

• IPA^(key): /kɔp/

cop (plural coppes)

1. summit (of a mountain or hill)
2. top, tip, topmost part
3. top of the head, crown
4. head

• English: cop
• Scots: cop, coppe
• Yola: kappas (plural)
• → Welsh: copa

• “cop, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-25.

cop m (plural cops)

1. Alternative spelling of còp

cop m

1. Alternative form of copp

cop oblique singular, m (oblique plural cos, nominative singular cos, nominative plural cop)

1. Alternative form of colp

From Frankish *kopp.

cop oblique singular, m (oblique plural cos, nominative singular cos, nominative plural cop)

1. head

• copet

Borrowed from German Zopf.

• (Greater Poland):
  • (Chełmno-Dobrzyń) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡sɔp/

cop m inan

1. (Chełmno-Dobrzyń) Synonym of warkocz

• Kazimierz Nitsch (1907) “cop”, in “Dyalekty polskie Prus zachodnich”, in Materyały i Prace Komisyi Językowej Akademii Umiejętności w Krakowie (in Polish), volume 3, Krakow: Akademia Umiejętności, page 387

From Middle Irish copp, borrowed from either Old English copp or Middle English copp, both meaning "top," from Proto-West Germanic *kopp.

• IPA^(key): /kʰɔhp/

cop m (genitive singular coip, plural coip)

1. foam, froth

• copach (“foamy, frothy”)
• cop na mara (“sea foam, spume”)
• copraich (“fizz”, verb)
• cop ri do bheul (“foaming at the mouth”)

cop (past chop, future copidh, verbal noun copadh, past participle copte)

1. capsize
2. pour out, tip out
3. foam, froth

Derived from German Zopf.

• IPA^(key):

cop m inan (genitive singular copu, nominative plural copy, genitive plural copov, declension pattern of dub)

1. braid

   Synonym: vrkoč

• copík, copček

• “cop”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

cop (nominative plural cops)

1. hoe (tool)

From Middle English coppe (spider), from Old English copp, from Proto-West Germanic *kopp (“round object, orb”).

• IPA^(key): /kɔp/
• Rhymes: -ɔp

cop m (plural copynnod or copynnau)

1. (obsolete) spider

   Synonyms: copyn, corryn, pryf cop, pryf copyn

No longer found as an independent word, cop is now used as an element in other words for "spider", such as copyn, pryf cop and pryf copyn and derived terms.

• copyn (“spider”)
• pryf cop (“spider”)
• pryf copyn (“spider”)

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “cop”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies